in march, when germany was still clinging fiercely to its winter chills, we went to cologne for a day for the local postcrossing meetup. we didn’t have much time to properly explore the city, but our lovely host drove us around to see the very impressive brown coal open air mines of grevenbroich. they’re… huuuuge! so big in fact, that whole towns have been moved to make way for the excavation sites…
because the whole thing didn’t fit in a single frame of my holga, i made this rough panorama instead (click for bigger):
it looked a bit like the surface of an alien planet, with its ridges and indentations, both beautiful and haunting. from everywhere around the mine, you can see the steam-electric plants, puffing away clouds of white… we heard that the parents here tell their kids that’s where clouds are made – a rather clever cover to an otherwise dirty reality…